Creative Financing Options for Sellers If you are a seller, you need to widen your pool of buyers to people who do not qualify for traditional financing as well.
Some options may be the following: Seller Financing If you have equity, you may want to offer seller financing.
With seller financing, the seller is the bank.
Assumable Mortgage Other alternatives are checking with your lender to see if the buyer can assume your mortgage.
Although most loans are not assumable, today some lenders may offer that as an option to a seller who is about to fall behind in their mortgage payments or who is already in default.
It may make more sense for the lender to allow a buyer to take over the loan than have to foreclosure on the property.
Average foreclosure costs to a lender are approximately $50,000 per foreclosure.
Lease Options Lease options are a way to sell your home in a difficult market for a higher price because the buyer enters into a contract to lease your home with an option to buy it at a specific price in the future.
Lease options are a great way for buyers who do not have enough cash or who have bad credit to own a home.
During the option period, they can work on cleaning up their credit and qualifying for traditional financing or saving more for their down payment.
Generally, the buyer pays an upfront option fee to you.
A portion or all of the lease payments can be used as credits to the buyer towards purchasing the property.
If at the end of the term, the buyer chooses not to buy the property, you just keep the lease payments, and you can continue renting the home to them or look for another buyer or tenant and enter into a lease option with them.
Creative Financing Options for Investors/Buyers Finding traditional financing for your deals is getting tougher because banks have tightened their lending guidelines.
So here are a few options that are available for getting financing if you don't have cash: Private Investors or Hard Money Lenders Private investors are individuals or companies that will loan you money on a short term basis quickly.
They don't have to follow any strict lending guidelines like traditional lending institutions must do.
Most are interested in the equity of the property and how quickly you can pay them back.
You will have to pay a higher interest rate and points upfront, but the advantage is you don't have to fill out a lot of formal paperwork, go through credit checks and you get the money quickly so you don't lose your opportunity to buy the investment property you have found.
Seller Financing You may want to have the seller finance the transaction if they have equity.
Assume Seller's Loan Another option is to assume the seller's loan if the lender will allow it.
This way you can save on some of the costs associated with a traditional mortgage.
Wholesaling Wholesaling real estate means putting a piece of property under contract and assigning it to another investors/buyer.
You receive an assignment fee from your investor/buyer for finding the property and securing the contract.
The advantage is you don't have to close the deal yourself, and you make a quick assignment fee of approximately $5,000 so you can move on to the next project.
Being creative and thinking outside the box is what makes today's investor successful.
Once you do enough deals and accumulate some cash, financing won't be an issue for you.
But if you are just starting out or short on cash, you will need to secure financing ahead of time in order to do your deals and stay in business.
Compiling a list of private lenders is a smart thing to do so you can contact them when you find a good deal and jump on it.
Today is the best time to buy real estate and take advantage of the buyer's market.
So having financing available is critical to your success.
Just taking the time to plan ahead and get your financing ready will allow you to continue to grow your investment portfolio and give you the financial security and long term wealth you hope to achieve.